NEWS

Downs Kick Off Season With Tricky Outing

10/Aug/2017 13:37

Mamelodi Sundowns kick off their season programme against a team that will test them to the full in the first round of the MTN8 at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday.

Twice, Maritzburg United have derailed the African champions in their quest for the league championship by either beating them, or drawing against them (twice in the last campaign, when they drew 1-1 in the first round and led for most of the game before Yannick Zakri snatched a draw with a brace in their 2-2 draw in the second round.)

Yet, there cannot be a draw this time round. One must die, and for the Tshwane Giants, losing is not an option.

While the Lucas Moripe Stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for the Brazilians in the last season, they intend to change that around this season. They will still be fighting on several fronts, in knock out competitions and league in domestic campaigns, and pushing to make it beyond the quarter finals in the Confederation of African Football Champions League.

The good news is that they have had three weeks of total rest, the first break they had after a run of more than fifty matches on the trot, including not having a break and pre-season preparations last year.

This year, they have had the luxury of a break. And, following a camp in Rustenburg, the side would be refreshed and ready for the new challenge.

But they will know that Maritzburg are no pushovers. They will be without their talisman Kurt Lentjies, who has joined Chippa United in the off season. He was one of the most influential players on the pitch, and it all rubbed off on the rest of the team. But they still have Deolin Mekoa, and Evans Rusike, whose goal scoring prowess has made him a wanted striker. Brian Onyango has also showed great defensive play and attacking prowess in set pieces. He scored the first goal against Mamelodi Sundowns in the 2-2 draw, heading in a corner by Mekoa to beat Kennedy Mweene.

But while Maritzburg have given the Brazilians a rough time generally, the Tshwane side has beaten them 14 times, so will know that they can beat the Kwazulu Natal side.
Coach Pitso Mosimane will be happy that he had more than two weeks to prepare for Maritzburg this time round. He would desire nothing better than demonstrating why he is the top coach in Africa, and he will have spent hours poring over video recordings of their previous clashes. With his brains trust also having a fresh perspective, and the opportunity to knock new combinations into shape, fans can expect their favorite side to show what they will bring into the new season.

They will certainly be better prepared for the rigors of continental competition and how to balance this with the domestic pressure.

Last season, they were outplayed by Bidvest Wits in a game that fell bang between Sundowns CAF clashes, so Mosimane and his boys will be more focused.

Much will depend on how Yannick Zakri kicks off his new season with the Brazilians. He is no more under pressure to prove himself, and a relaxed Zakri will prove a massive asset. The same will apply to Sibusiso Vilakazi, whose undoubted ability and class seem to have been overshadowed by pressure to prove his value following his much publicized move to the champions.

Percy Tau, too will now know he has nothing to prove any longer, and will be a year more mature, and beware a Tau in form and relaxed.

Number one goal minder Denis Onyango will know that new signing Razak Brimah will be itching to grab the gloves, and this will bode well for the Tshwane Giants.

Captain Hlompho Kekana will hope the fans turn up in the same numbers they did when they played their last game at Lucas Moripe Stadium against AS Vita Club. Kekana has urged the fans to turn up in numbers to urge the boys to deliver great results.

48 Responses to Downs Kick Off Season With Tricky Outing

haha thats exactly what i posted on twitter requesting for more updates from the club. they doing little to help us track and follow our club. we need more “colour”, photos, interviews, public jersey signings, training camps, friendlies, player tv appearances, quick transfer news feed, highlights, coach & player post match views, etc more & more please. #KaBoYellow. To coach Pitso, “Sir, we wish to see Piano & Shoeshine football again, a dominant Sundowns.”

We dont have Webmaster, we have Websleeper…….yeeeerrrrrr this man or woman take three months to six months before he/she upload the web with news…..while other teams even know whats happening at their training ground….we still have pictures of players who have long left the club…..I think we still gonna Rely on soccerladuma, kickoff and goal for Our beloved team…….

Lucas Moripe has no longer been a happy hunting ground for Sundowns last season,can someone update us about the reconstruction of HM Pietjie,about to b completed?We r hearing that it has bn confirmed Rulani is at Pirates,Lebese ishas joined Sundowns we r just getting that from other sources.Webmaster dd u 4get even that, though Kaizer Chiefs has confirmed that.Really editor?We r too curious or we r too over anxious mayb the right time for a big press conference is the real reason that we r not told abt these development.Kaboyelo everywhere we go.

I think our Webmaster is being told by Management not to report about Lebese until tomorrow where they will be unveiling all our new players including Manyama and pls guys Dawana like surprises tomorrow opposition supporters will faint when we unveil our new players watch da space Dawanas.

On the issue of Rhulani its obvious Motsepe gave him green light to go to Pirates if Motsepe didn’t like ngabe usekhona kithi namanje and you mustn’t forget Motsepe and Khoza are buddies they are helping each other.Laduma and Kickoff are competing with each other with Breaking News and they will keep on doing that let’s wait for our team to break the news to us.I heard that Cape Town City will be making a big announcement tomorrow let’s wait with bated breath Members and lastly when Motsepe say yes nobody can say no.Kby forever.

Muzi Kunene&Mandla I love the spirit from u guys.I also have a firm belief that Sundowns will pull a huge surprise up their sleeve &on my side I must watch&learn.To the Yellow Nation lets get behind our team all the way.Sorry that we ddnt get everyone we wanted,with our support this team will get to greater heights&we r going 2 b a great force.

Mina I won’t mind if Billiat leaves our team because he doesn’t want to renew the contract and come January he’ll be free to join a team of his choice mahala,let them them give us Manyama and Mngoma in a swap deal as Citizen newspaper have said today.

Another thing he’s injury prone let him go even Castro can go since his wife moved here in SA he’s not the same ubedlala kungcono while she’s in Colombia and lastly Downs is bigger than anyone nobody can hold us in ransom.

This webmaster is getting paid for doing nothing they real disrespect us as supporters they don’t take us serious i don’t see a point of having a website but you don’t update it. Sundowns is a big team we should have news every hour if not you can interview players ,have president column, coach column and captain column. News about our players we should get it from our website first.
Sky is the Limit

i really think most of these guys that work for sundowns don’t give a damn about the team. 1) No one listen to our complains or even border to align it one bit. 2) the marketing dep don’t market the team well enough for it to reach it full potential, we have so much room for growth! 3) We are just not informed…. all our social media sites are poor, our website, twitter, Facebook! A team like cape town city is only a year old but we all can see how it growing, attracting such a big sponsor. Their website is even better than ours it a shame! look at chippa already having a good following in P.E and filling up the stadium, but a team like sundowns we are struggling this doesn’t make sense. Mr prez you have to do something about this, give the marketing team mandate to make sure sundowns fills the stadium week in, week out! they have to earn their salary!

It is sad to see our webmaster sleeping , we want to knows about the injuries, new signings, mtn preparations, caf preparations, mara you keep quiet why? We know nothing about our be love team ayi chaaaa

Romario bro problem here poor management we complain about webmaster all are same if look number of player recruit and loan out that shows how things handle number foreigners sign although foreign quota exhausted even president countable that wrong doing by employed wrong people no monitor situation he just pump money to the wrong people

our management is the poorest in the league, i know this might sound a bit hush but that’s the truth. How do you expect us to fill up the stadium, when we are about to play a massive game in the champions league, but no one is marketing the game or talking about it! To get people to the stadium it starts with building a hype around the game. look at carling black label learn something from them as far as marketing is concerned. I know carling black label cup is a useless preseason game, but look at the hype they create for that game, it always sold out even though it only a preseason game. Now what is the management doing to get the people to go out and get tickets for the upcoming Caf game? free entry to our games is a very poor initiative it’s not working! it very stressful coz as a fan i see so much potential in this team to even surpass your so called soweto giants!

Romario I raised that question last year when Sundowns went to Japan but it was difficult to know when r the Supercup tickets available.Although we knew that we were the ones that r hosting,until the last three days of the game.Sundowns is playing the quarter finals in September Caf Champions League.What is the real reason that tickets r not available right now?Are they waiting to give free entry for ppl that r wearing the team’s regalia/attire?Is this the way of making money 4 d club freebies?What about travel costs whereby they will b recovered through gate takings?PROs,Marketing&Communications is just a foreign language in our team.Upgrading Sundowns premises&facilities is just a Chinese language whereby some one is waiting for a translator,to interprete 4 us.Al lot of people at Sundowns r sitting on their laurels,just caring about their salaries.A lot of dead wood needs to removed by the president Motsepe.

No now I also agree, something not right about this Lukas Moripe’ stadium….Now how do u feel, Lebese & Manyisa played & nothing was ever mentioned about them on this website…we need to do something serious

It seems no matter the defence &our goalkeepr Mweene can have a good day,eventually he is going to concede a goal.Even if its not his fault.Its official now my keeper u r not for big occasions.We played beautiful soccer today though we had a slow start.Even our goalkeeper was not having a busy day.We just conceded a goal while still concentrating on attack.As they say soccer is the only game u play well bt end on the losing side.I’m still of the opinion that we r in need of an out&out striker but the question is who&where?I still blieve Ngele is needed at Sundowns,to keep everyone on his toes.Its time now to focus in d Champions league&PSL.Lets stop crying over spilt milk,MTN8 is just a voodoo competition 4 us its sure case now that we’ll neva win it.

Pisto hasn plann B have quality players also rate himself as higher qualified coach but beaten by apprentice coach Morena doesn desrve to play right back ahead of Zwane or Mbekile also to play Zakri and Villa big problem never form gud team

Two thinks happening now its either we take other teams for granted(we are not doing our homework enough as we all know now that all the teams park the bus against us) or we need to put a strategy in place for this type of defensive football.Another one is coming soon from Supersport.Eric Tickler same style of football.